Transportation budget shortfalls have dominated the debate on Beacon Hill in recent weeks. When lawmakers’ attention does swivel around to education, the public conversations tend to center on a lack of state investment or charter schools.
Bilingual education has been flying under the radar. But that may be changing as English immersion critics ramp up pressure for reforms.
After a 2002 voter referendum, Massachusetts abandoned teaching students in English in tandem with their native tongues for instruction primarily in English. A decade later, education advocates contend that the policy has contributed to non-native speakers’ poor academic performance and high dropout rates.
The State House News Service reports that advocates for English language learners are supporting House and Senate bills that would give school districts more leeway to accommodate these students with targeted programs that go beyond English language basics.
The fresh scrutiny on bilingual education is a likely product of unwelcome attention from federal education officials. A Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise in-depth story explored the fallout from a 2011 federal determination that the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s English immersion policies violated the Equal Education Opportunities Acts by failing to mandate that English immersion teachers receive instruction in teaching this cohort of students.
Before the federal review, Massachusetts relied on voluntary training programs that most of these teachers avoided. The state has now requires a semester of to a mandatory graduate-level training.
Bilingual education is inextricably linked to the national debate on immigration. “The larger picture of immigration is attached to anything that has to do with language,” said Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, a Boston Democrat, at the recent Joint Committee on Education hearing covered by the News Service. In Massachusetts, growing recognition of the failure of “sink or swim” instruction, twined with unrelenting activism by immigrant groups on issues like the Dream Act, is gradually spurring new approaches toward a punitive decade-old policy.
–GABRIELLE GURLEY
BEACON HILL
Gov. Patrick says he is open to a compromise with the Legislature on a tax plan, somewhere between where he started (a total of $1.9 billion) and where lawmakers seem headed, the AP reports (via WBUR). The Herald reports the Senate has upped the ante with an $805 million tax plan. The Globe puts the Senate figure at something over $600 million. Scot Lehigh says the state’s lame duck governor badly misplayed his tax gambit.
State Sen. Dan Wolf, one of a group of liberal lawmakers supporting a more ambitious plan than the one passed by the House, discusses the transportation finance debate with CommonWealth editor Bruce Mohl in a new “Face to Face” video.
Former state rep. Stephen Smith is sentenced to four months in prison for casting invalid absentee ballots in 2009 and 2010, AP reports (via NECN).
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Scituate residents voted at Town Meeting to adopt the local meals tax surcharge but there is some confusion over where the money will go.
The Worcester City Council prepares to weigh in on the question of a slots parlor, the Telegram & Gazette reports. Meanwhile, the city’s economic development panel turns down a tax break for a Hampton Inn because all the resulting jobs will be low paying.
The Lowell City Council wants to remove the homeless camps along the Merrimack and Concord Rivers, the Sun reports.
The vice chair of the Board of Selectmen in Saugus is under investigation for his private business dealings, but details are scant, the Item reports.
CASINOS
MGM, one of two big firms angling to site a casino in Springfield, is spending big to win over residents and city leaders, the Globe reports. In the new issue of CommonWealth, Gabrielle Gurley looks at the competing bids for Springfield casino license, which feature brothers from the city’s most prominent business family squaring off against each other.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Tweet this: Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin come out of self-imposed exile for a lengthy profile in the New York Times Magazine.
Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist is marshalling his forces to get behind immigration reform, saying the ground has shifted under conservative “bitter-enders.”
Oregon’s secretary of state is pushing a law that would automatically register people to vote when they apply for a driver’s license, Governing reports.
A retired Texas veterinarian is suing the Lone Star state over a law that bars dispensing veterinary medical advice over the Internet, saying the law violates his First Amendment rights.
ELECTIONS
City Councilor Felix Arroyo joins the growing field of candidates for mayor of Boston.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Declining membership and donations along with questionable decisions on early retirement for employees is threatening the stability of the Girl Scouts, which just celebrated its 100th anniversary.
The Miami Dolphins would receive $7.5 million a year in hotel tax revenue to renovate Sun Life Stadium under a deal worked out with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Governing reports.
EDUCATION
Some Babson College students are not happy with the school’s selection of former lieutenant governor Kerry Healey to be its new president.
In a Globe op-ed, Attorney General Martha Coakley sounds an alarm about shady for-profit colleges.
The Somerset School Committee will release a long-awaited report from an investigation into tampering with MCAS tests in 2010 that resulted in the state invalidating student scores.
HEALTH CARE
Nurses at the for-profit Quincy Medical Center, who have been without a contract since 2010, finalized plans for a one-day strike tomorrow and will be joined by nurses from other Steward Health Care hospitals to highlight what they say are inadequate staffing and patient safety.
The Weekly Standard says health care costs can never be contained because federal and state governments continue to pass mandates on coverage for insurance companies.
TRANSPORTATION
Under a new law, an Andover cab driver loses his cab, his fare, and gets hit with a $500 fine for picking up a passenger in Lawrence who had called for the ride. The law bars cab pickups in Lawrence unless the cab or cab company are licensed by the city, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
A Fairhaven selectman apologized to residents for their “suffering” brought on by the town’s two wind turbines and promised hearings to discuss the turbines’ future.
MEDIA
The Tampa Bay Times corrects a Star Wars reference, admitting to not being strong in the ways of The Force.
